Synonym

Summary

A synonym is a term that has the same (or sufficiently similar) meaning as another term (i.e., the term of which it is a synonym.

While from a theoretical point of view a term and its synonyms are identical, in practice they are more 'equivalent', i.e. while they have the same meaning, when using one or the other in a sentence, there is often one term that is preferred over the other.

The synonymOf field

Curated texts have an (optional) `synonymOf`-field in their headers. The contents of that field must be the term identifier that can be dereferenced from the current scope to the semantic unit (or associated MRG entry) for which the term that is being documented is a synonym.

How Synonyms Work

Consider a synonym, i.e., a curated text that has a synonymOf field that contains a dereferenceable term identifier. Let's say that the original is what the synonym is a synonym of. Here's how we construct an MRG entry for the synonym (assuming that the MRG entry of the original exists:

1. Creating a copy of the MRG entry of the original.
2. Copy all fields in the header of the synonym into that copy, overwriting fields that already exist.
3. Add all required MRG entry fields as usual, possibly (again) overwriting fields that already exist.

This way of working allows curators to tailor specific fields, such as the glossary texts field, or the form phrases fields for the synonym.

Purpose

Within the context of TEv2, the ability to define synonyms for a term is needed so that HRGs can be made better readable without taking away control over the structure of an HRG entry.